The establishment of the Service for State Protection

President Andrzej Duda decided to sign into law a bill establishing the Service for State Protection, a successor of the Government Protection Bureau. Thus, the Law and Justice party fulfilled one of its most important promises in the field of internal security – a deep reform of the protective security unit. Between May 2017, when the Ministry of Interior and Administration published a draft bill, October, when the government submitted that draft to the Sejm, and December, when the lower house of the Polish parliament voted it through, the bill did not undergo significant changes. Therefore, the adopted act fully reflects the intentions of the drafter. Despite the right to conduct preliminary investigation, the Service for State Protection in a legal sense is not considered an intelligence agency. The bill will come into force on February 1, 2018. The transitional period will expire at the end of April 2018.